


And Kingdom came

by orphan_account



Category: Social Network (2010), Supernatural
Genre: Crossover, M/M, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-08
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-04 16:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/712845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Supernatural AU in which Mark is an awkward angel, Eduardo is a hunter with daddy issues, Chris is a prophet of the Lord, Sean might or not be the devil and Dustin tags along to save a damsel in distress.<br/>And well, the apocalypse...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Small Town Stories

**Author's Note:**

> So,  
> Heya there, I will try to update every two days, but I can't promise anything since it's exam season...please report each and every mistake, English is not my native language....(if anyone wants to beta, you are very welcome)...  
> Now have fun and don't forget to be awesome.  
> BTW: If nobody has told you today, you are wonderful!

The school looks pretty normal. Of course, this does not fool Eduardo, who has spent his whole life ripping of the façade of normality from idyllic people, families, towns.

Yet he notices nothing suspicious on his way to his first lesson of the day.

(That is not surprising, sometimes they have to stay for weeks until they find whatever has been causing trouble this time).

Even though Eduardo has never been to the school before, he has no trouble finding the room. He has navigated his way over many school grounds over the years.

 

When he enters the room, he scans it immediately. Looks for people behaving oddly, falling out of the scheme, but there is nothing to be found in Madame Miller’s French lesson.

Eduardo is tense.

Five people have gone missing and the only thing they had in common was the school.

Three of them were students, a teaching assistant and a cleaning lady (Eduardo can see their pictures in his head. Two smiling boys and a smiling girl, a smiling mother of two and a smiling young woman who aspired to be a health and politics teacher, living the apple-pie-life and now they are just gone, probably ripped apart by monsters they did not even believe existed until they caught them.)

Eduardo wishes he had any idea what might be responsible for it, but that’s what he is here for.

 

Going undercover is nothing new, neither is investigating at school. It is just the first time that Eduardo is investigating a high school after his own graduation.

It is a weird feeling, he knows he does not fit in (he didn’t even back when he was a child, always being the new kid, the one who had changed schools sometimes ten times a year, the one who spent his life hunting monsters, even though very few people know about _that_ ) and for a moment, he wonders whether anyone would notice.

But of course they don’t, for one because Eduardo is not a goddamn amateur and blending in has been a crucial part of his job since forever and second because Eduardo, despite being nineteen, looks very young and not like the aggressive kind most of his “colleagues” are.

Eduardo was always the kid to do his homework and be on top of the class and nobody cares to look further than that.

 

(

The first time Eduardo’s dad takes him hunting he is not even seven years old and so very fucking proud.

 

[

_It just a spirit, not even a very mean one, they get it over with without much trouble._

_Eduardo will experience so much worse in his life as a hunter._

_But still, he will never forget that moment when he first salted and burned old bones, ridding an innocent family of their troubles. He feels powerful and good._

_And his daddy looks so damn proud._

_Eduardo can’t imagine ever doing something else._

]

)

 

But Eduardo is a professional and even though he is taking notes on the correct use of the subjunctive, he is keeping an open eye as ever.

But there is nothing, absolutely nothing that might be supernatural crossing his way.

That is, until third period.

Eduardo has always had a thing for math, the logic behind it and the way it was so simple and clean. Equations were made to be figured out and that was a challenge Eduardo liked.

(There is logic behind it and Eduardo has always known that logic might one day be what will save his life. A clear strategy, his father taught him, is worth more than bullets.)

When people dislike math, Eduardo thinks, it is only because they have never witnessed the illogical, instinctive dirt of a killing spree.

It is the greatest possible contrast to trigonometry.

 

When Eduardo enters the room, he immediately scans it, but the high school students really seem to be just high school students, no traces of sulfur anywhere, nobody having the absent, creepy stare of the possessed.

Even the teacher, a Mr. Parker seems nice.

“You have to be the new student, Eduardo Garfield, right?”

Eduardo nods, playing the shy newbie. He has played that role countless times over the last few years, often with different aliases.

“Now Eduardo, please, would you please get a seat and sit down?”

Eduardo takes a seat next to a pretty girl called Alice. He tries his best smile.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Vector point functions” she answers, smiling right back. “It’s very hard and Mr. Parker is strict as hell. He is fresh from university and still thinks he has something to prove or something.”

The teacher who seemed so nice turns out to be a total asshole.

When one girl admits to have forgotten her homework, he is so mean that he almost cries. He doesn’t answer questions and his tone is condescending.

It is not like Eduardo has not hundreds of teachers just like him over the years.

Eduardo checks him anyways, but his eyes look exclusively human and there is no trace of sulfur anywhere.

 

When they are solving a problem, Eduardo sees his chance. He raises his hand.

“Saverin?” The teacher asks, sounding annoyed.

“Sir, I’ve got a problem.” Eduardo tries, sounding as innocent as possible. He even throws in some puppy eyes for good measure.”

“Exactly which part of “No questions allowed” didn’t you get, Mr. Saverin? Please tell me so I can clarify.” Eduardo wants to punch him.

“No offence, Sir, but we weren’t this far back in my old school”, he lies.

Mr. Parker actually rolls his eyes. “Here I was, thinking my class was hanging behind.”

But he comes anyway, and when he leans over the table to explain how to solve the problem, Eduardo smells him.

 

But neither does he smell like sulfur or herbs which could be signs for bewitching nor does he smell like rotting flesh or even perfume to cover something up.

He smells vaguely soapy and a bit like mint. Nothing special.

He seems like an ordinary guy.

So Eduardo acts as if he finally understood the problem and the teacher leaves again.

Now, Eduardo has to look around again. Everything is ordinary.

 

After a few minutes, however, he notices a boy that has something suspicious about him. He is sitting two tables away from Eduardo and he solves his problems very fast, but he does not talk to either the students or the teacher. In fact, he does not respond to his environment at all.

When he is not writing anything down, he sits completely still.

“Who’s that?” Eduardo asks Alice and points to the strange boy.

“Oh, that’s Jesse.” She answers.

“Does he seem, you know, weird to you?”

There are actually few places where potential monsters are easier spotted than in a high school, even though the chances of them being recognized as such are very low.

People in high schools tend to discuss every little detail about everybody. And if they don’t fit into the scheme (which monsters don’t usually do), their school mates are usually keen on sharing (especially if you are even remotely charming which Eduardo has become over the years), so it is easy for hunters to take them out.

Eduardo puts on his most charming smile and it is really no surprise that the girl turns at him with a blinding smile and starts talking.

“Oh that’s Jesse, he is always weird. Like, nice weird, not creepy weird. He has a lot of cats and he almost never talks. Also, his parents are like, super religious or something?

Don’t worry about him, he is actually kind of nice, even though he looks like a stalker.”

 

Eduardo nods. Of course there are always some who stand out, who don’t behave like everybody else without ever being serial killers.

“Have you known him for long?” If this Jesse kid actually is a monster, he might have just moved here recently, since there haven’t been missing people in this town for ten years until a few months ago, and even then it had been the town drunkard, the occasional incident, as Eduardo’s father calls it.

“Yeah, actually, I do.” Alice smiles. “We were in primary school together. He was dating my best friend Erica in ninth grade.”

“Have you noticed any… I don’t know… has he changed recently?”

“Why are you asking that?” Alice asks with furrowed brows.

“You know, you have to keep a look out with all those people vanishing and all. I’m just interested, that’s all.” He tries to look charming again and she smiles, too. In her eyes, however, there is a hint of doubt.

“Well you are one to talk, being the new guy and asking weird questions and all.” Eduardo fakes a laugh at that and tells himself to be more careful.

 

(

The first time Eduardo does not want to be a hunter, he is almost sixteen.

 

[

_There is a girl at his new high school (the seventh this year and it is not even June yet) and Eduardo thinks she’s very pretty._

_She is a cheerleader and her voice is like honey and she is everything a teenage boy could ever dream of._

_Eduardo harbours a crush the size of the Chrysler building and when she invites him to go to cinema with her and her friends, he thinks he is going to die._

_They watch some stupid zombie flick, the kind Eduardo is living all his life and the kind everybody else in that cinema thought was pure fiction._

_She takes his hand in the dark and hell, he is the king of the world._

_He watches his dad impale her with a wooden stick not even three days later._

_Eduardo doesn’t cry but he also tries to never look at high school girls anymore._

]

)

 

After what felt like an endless day, Eduardo comes home to the cheap hotel they are living in.

“Found anything yet?” His father asks and Eduardo shakes his head. He has some suspicions about that kid, Jesse, but Eduardo does not want to share that. He does not know why, he even knows that it could be dangerous to withhold information from his father, but he can’t tell him.

Besides, according to Alice there is not really something to tell, is there?

Eduardo’s father just looks at him and Eduardo knows that he has disappointed his father once more.

 

Eduardo doesn’t mind working with his dad. Or better, he could not imagine it any other way. Yes, his father is a very strict man and only expects the best and fastest results, but Eduardo always wrote that off as a result of his hunter life. It is the only way to survive in a job like this.

 

(

They travel around the United States in an old Chevrolet Impala and it is as good a home as any to Eduardo, who has never really known anything else.

 

[

_There is a memory buried somewhere in the depth of his mind, of a warm country and a smiling woman who held him in her arms._

_He remembers the ocean._

_He sometimes dreams about the blue._

]

 

But Eduardo has learned to never ask about Brazil. He never asks about his mother, he never asks why they had to leave.

He did so once, many years ago when he had not yet understood the pain that silenced his father, in a fight.

Even though both of them knew that Eduardo would never have a real job, would never have a real chance at anything other than hunting, his father cared a lot about Eduardo’s grades.

They had spent weeks chasing down an especially persistent pack of wraiths and truth to be told, Eduardo had not thought about his English exams very much. (It is hard to keep in mind something as trivial as exams when you know there are creatures about trying to feed of your brain).

But while Eduardo hadn’t failed the exam (he would never let that happen, supernatural evil or not) he had come very close.

And his dad had yelled at him. Only this time, Eduardo hadn’t looked at the floor like always, he had yelled back.

“If you want me to have perfect English marks, then why do we keep moving around every month? If you care so much about my education, why don’t you just let me attend school? You act like you know anything but you have no idea what it’s like, coming into a new school every few weeks, some are far ahead of you, some are far behind. Why should I even bother to get to know people, I’m going to leave them in a few days, anyway! Why did you have to choose this job, why did we have to come to this country, why won’t you tell me about mom?”

He screamed until his voice broke and there were tears streaming over his face and he knew he had gone too far. He was so frightened because his father said nothing (and he always mocked Eduardo when he cried).

Eduardo’s father just looked at him and when he finally spoke, it was with a quiet, icy voice that scared Eduardo more than all of the monsters he had ever met combined.

“Eduardo, I will forgive you for speaking like that to me this one time and this time only, because I understand that a boy like you can’t imagine the implications but if you ever, ever do something like this again, it will have consequences you seriously don’t want to consider. Now go to bed.”

Eduardo had just nodded and then went to bed.

His father had not spoken to him other than the very necessary for a few weeks but that stopped after a while and their relationship had never been very warm to begin with.

Eduardo made sure to only bring home good marks after that.

 [

_There is a boy, in his mind, he calls him the Other One, a boy who is called Eduardo too, but who lives in a big city with a mother who likes to cook and a father who talks to him and sometimes takes him to watch baseball._

_He is good at school, with a dislike for languages and a penchant for math. That other guy has a lot of friends and goes out with the pretty high school girls._

_Eduardo likes to make up stories about him._

_He likes to make him go to a good college (when he is feeling especially daring it is Harvard or Yale) and join a fraternity. He makes him have the life the real Eduardo would never have._

_Sometimes he is so jealous that the tears sting behind his eyes._

_But of course, nobody knows of him. Eduardo is too old to have an imaginary friend after all._

]

 

Eduardo tries not to think about any of that. He is, he tells himself, a Saverin and he has a case to focus on. That is all that matters.

His father gave him a folder which contains five newspaper articles about the missing people.

(Eduardo’s father always has folders for the cases they are working on and stores them at various banks all over the country. He likes to have records to consult, especially if he feels that cases could be linked. Eduardo likes it just as he always likes it when things are in order).

 

He spends a few hours trying to figure out what the current constellations of the stars are (it can’t be werewolves, the moon phases are not right), whether there are any local legends (there aren’t really, just something about a house a few towns away, but none of the cases can be linked to that), what kinds of plants grow here at that kind of the year (for hex bags and all kinds of rituals) and whether there are any past events in the history of the town that might explain the missing people. But apart from a few suicides and a murder in 1986 (the culprit being still alive and in prison), there is nothing.

It is frustrating, really.

After that, he does his homework (his father doesn’t think that already having graduated is a valid reason for not bringing home only the best marks, pointing out that while Eduardo Saverin might have been a straight A student, Eduardo Garfield is not) and tries not to get angry at his French teacher for making them write four hundred words about “Mon boulot de rêve”.

 

After that, he prepares for the second round of investigation. There is a lot of ground together and he and his father are practically playing against time, every minute being a minute where another person might vanish.

Besides, you can learn a lot more about a town at night than about a town at day. The carefully maintained façades of the middle class tend to get a little transparent after dark.

 

This evening, Eduardo goes into the school once more, while his father investigates the school grounds. He is not sure what they are looking for, but he hopes that there will be some clues. Just something, anything.

There are few things as creepy as schools after midnight. It is dark and Eduardo’s steps echo through the empty hallways, nothing that he isn’t used too, though.

He checks the classrooms first, then the staff rooms. The lavatories, the attic. But nothing. It takes almost an hour until he reaches a small door that leads to the basement.

Creepy things love basements, Eduardo knows that from experience.

 

The basement is as dusty, untidy and impersonal as any other (Eduardo has seen his fair share; this is his job after all) and irritatingly quiet.

Eduardo almost wants to leave again when he notices something. A single, dirty running shoe lying next to a huge closet. The shoe is nothing special, except for its color, which is an almost disturbing shade of blue.

Eduardo remembers this shoe from the description of one of the missing students. It belongs to one of the boys, Dustin was his name. When Eduardo picks it up, he can’t find any traces of blood on it. Not that that says anything.

For a moment, he considers to keep looking, but he is in this job long enough to know the risks.

His father drilled it into him: if you are alone and find a clue call back up. No alternatives.

So he calls his father.

 

When his dad arrives a few minutes later (he had been investigating on the grounds right next to the school), they watch out for further signs

They don’t find anything, but the closet looks like it has been recently moved, so Eduardo puts on rubber gloves (to not leave behind any traces) and tries to push it away. It is surprisingly easy.

Behind it is, of course, a door. It looks like every other door in the building. It is locked.

Eduardo and his father draw their guns.

Lock picking is one of those skills you pick up if you spend your whole life investigating mysteries, so it doesn’t take a minute for Eduardo.

 

His father points his flashlight into the room. Nothing is moving, but there are five bodies slumped against the back wall. They are wrapped in chains, but Eduardo can’t see whether they are dead or just unconscious. From where they are standing, they could match the descriptions of the missing.

Carefully, Eduardo and his father enter the room, always awaiting sudden movements, potential danger.

When Eduardo gets a closer look at the bodies, he can see that they actually are the missing people, no doubts about that. One of them, the one who Eduardo identifies as that Dustin kid, is not wearing shoes.

Eduardo quickly analyses the situation

They are very dirty, there is some blood (not too much though) and the room smells after feces and vomit, but not like decay (Eduardo knows the scent of rotting bodies, it has etched itself into his brain since childhood). Right now, he can’t see any obvious signs of torture or a ritual.

“Check their pulses.” His father orders, facing the door now, his gun pointing in the same direction. Eduardo obeys and gets down. They have a pulse, all of them, but not are responding. They are breathing evenly, but their hands are cold, so they might be under oxygenated.

Eduardo can’t judge whether they are dehydrated or malnourished, but since he can’t see any traces of food or drinks, he assumes it.

On the arms of one of the boys, a skinny blonde (Chris, his name was, Eduardo remembers, an honors student) Eduardo sees strange burning marks.

Eduardo doesn’t want to think about what got them there.

“They are alive, seem stable, no major external injuries or significant blood loss, but one has strange marks on his arms. Not like sigils, but random burns.” he says and he can hear his father breathe out in relief.

(It is a weakness the older Saverin would never admit, but whenever they manage to get victims alive, the relief overwhelms him. There were so many he could not save).

“Shall I call 911?” Eduardo asks. It is the usual procedure, but they haven’t killed whatever it was that dragged them here yet. They should probably wait until at least one of the victims wake up to give them a description about what did this to them.

Chances are that, when they are in a hospital, nobody would believe them when they start talking about fantasy monsters (which Eduardo can understand). They probably would be given tranquilizers, until they won’t remember the real events and even if they do, most won’t admit it.

It is one thing to talk about monsters in a dark cellar, when you have just been abducted and are still covered in blood, but entirely another if you do it in a sterile, bright hospital bed. Eduardo has seen many a case ruined by this.

On the other hand, it is never a good idea to leave unconscious people lying around just waiting for them to wake up, especially if they don’t know what knocked them out in the first place.

Eduardo knows his father knows this, too. That’s why he hesitates.

“Let’s wait for ten minutes.” He responds. “If they aren’t awake by then, we’ll set up a simple camera and make an AEC.” AEC stands for anonymous emergency call, one of their standard procedures.

 

Eduardo nods. He checks the unconscious victims for broken bones or bruises, but he can’t find anything. He even checks their mouths for blood which could be a sign for internal bleeding (he’s happy to be still wearing his gloves now).

He works in silence, his father still pointing his gun at the door, always looking out for a monster.

 

But suddenly, there is a man standing in front of them, looking vaguely familiar and smiling.

“Hey there.” He says.

It takes a moment until Eduardo can place him. It is his math teacher from today.

“Mr. Parker?” Eduardo asks. This can’t be; he checked the guy for the usual monster stuff. “What are you doing here?” And how the hell did he get in with Eduardo’s father watching the door.

“Ah, Eduardo, was it? I could ask you the same question.” He smiles and his smile is incredibly filthy.

Eduardo’s father shoots him.

There is the sound of the gunshot and then there is silence. Eduardo can see his father hit the target, knows it from the way Mr. Parker shook and from the way Eduardo’s father almost never misses. There is even a bit of blood coming out of the wound, but far less than usually. Apart from that, he seems entirely unfazed.

Then Mr. Parker laughs.

“Did you really expect that to hurt me?” Mr. Parker asks. Eduardo can see in the corner of his eye that his father is trying very hard not to panic. The bullet was not just a normal bullet but their “special mix”, the ones they are always using when they don’t know what they are dealing with.

They are an invention from Eduardo’s father, made out of a combination of rock salt (against spirits and demons), herbs (against witches and certain pagan gods), wood (against vampires), silver (against shapeshifters) and a poison that slows any metabolism down. Of course, the bullet could take out humans, too.

Most of the things they usually deal with should be dead or at least hurt or vanishing right now. Not so Mr. Parker.

Eduardo’s father shoots him again and again and again.

 

Mr. Parker smiles.

“Now, let me tell you something: You really shouldn’t have done that.” He smiles. And with that, he goes up to Eduardo’s father and touches his arm. Eduardo does not even have the time to do anything and suddenly his father is screaming. The math teacher starts to glow weirdly and then his father falls on the ground.

Eduardo can’t see whether he is dead but he prays that he is just as unconscious as the others.

 

Mr. Parker smiles. “Now to you, my newest student, shouldn’t you be in bed by now?” His grin grows even bigger and he just stands there, feeling invincible and Eduardo feels so goddamn helpless.

“You know, they really had it coming, keeping all those chemicals conveniently in the science lab. I have always been a huge fan of humans doing science. It’s just fascinating seeing you hairless apes trying to understand the universe with a bit of self-made equipment, thinking just because you know what you are made of makes you stronger than us.

It’s ridiculous and pathetic.”

He steps to Eduardo and even though every instinct is telling him to shoot him, he doesn’t. He might need the bullets later.

Mr. Parker raises a test tube filled with white liquid. “And it makes for a really good sleeping draught.”

And with one hand, he forces Eduardo’s mouth open.

After that, everything goes black.


	2. Caged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry,  
> I planned to upload yesterday, but my laptop ate 1000 words from the middle, so I had to rewrite...  
> Anyway, have fun and if you like it maybe tell me what you think :)  
> I hope you have a wonderful day.

When Eduardo wakes up again, he can’t move. Around him is total darkness and he is chained. He has no idea what time it is.

Eduardo takes a deep breath and tries not to panic.

He knows nothing will change if he breaks down. So he tries his best to come up with a plan.

First: Find out as much about your surroundings as possible.

Eduardo tries to move but it is very hard. Both his hands and feet are tied with what feels like metal chains akin to those the other victims wore. They aren’t rusty and as much as he tries, he doesn’t manage to find the lock somewhere.

Keep calm, he reminds himself. What else do you know? It is dark, but from what Eduardo can smell, they are still in the basement. So that means, either he is here long enough that his father’s flashlight ran out of batteries or Mr. Parker took it with him.

His body feels sore and he supposes he must have fallen, because he can feel some bruises, but no serious injuries. His mouth doesn’t taste like blood, either. This gives him some hope.

Suddenly, there is a noise somewhere in the darkness

“Hello?” Eduardo asks. His voice is shaking a bit. The noise continues, but it doesn’t come closer, at least from what Eduardo can guess.

“So you aren’t Chris then.” A voice says. It is a boy’s voice, even though it sounds very hoarse.

Eduardo’s father doesn’t talk like that, so it’s one of the abducted boys. Since it is not Chris, it’s the other one. He needs a moment until he remembers his name.

“Dustin?”

“Who are you?” The voice answers. “And how do you know my name?”

“I’m Eduardo Saverin.”

“Saverin? I don’t know you, do I?” The boy sounds puzzled.

“No, I’m new, just moved to this town last week. Listen, Dustin, I need you to give me as much information as possible about this.”

But Dustin ignores his question. “What day is it?” he asks instead. “Are they looking for us, outside? Do they have any clues?”

Eduardo hesitates. “When I got captured it was Monday evening. But I have no idea how long I have been here. He drugged me. And yes, there is a huge fuss about this, but I’m afraid they have no idea about where we are. But maybe we can come up with a plan. Please, tell me everything.”

There is a moment of silence.

“Monday? It was Tuesday when he… got me. I had no idea. My mum must be going crazy.”

“Dustin.” Eduardo tries to stay calm. “How much time do we have until he comes back?”

“I don’t know. He comes and goes as he likes. Or maybe there is a routine. I have no idea, he always drugs us.”

“Okay. And how much do you eat? And how? Does he ever untie you?”

There is another moment of silence that stretches out. Eduardo wants to start talking again, but suddenly Dustin speaks.

“We don’t eat and drink apart from the drugs, but it is okay, I’m not hungry. Maybe he IVs us when we aren’t awake. He never unties us. I haven’t stood up in a week, not even to go to the bathroom.” Dustin sounds like he is about to burst into tears. “It’s disgusting, but he… I think he cleans us. I have never woken up during it, but sometimes everything feels cleaner, even the clothes. You can smell it, too. Oh my god, what if he touches us?”

Now Dustin is crying and Eduardo feels a sudden rush of sympathy. This boy doesn’t deserve to be here, none of them do.

“Shhh, Dustin.” He tries to soothe him. “It’s okay, none of this is your fault. We’ll get out of here, I promise.”

But Dustin doesn’t stop crying. “I thought so, too. But that’s almost a week ago. Nobody ever came to rescue us. What if they never will? I don’t want to die in here.”

There is nothing Eduardo can say to that, because Dustin is right. Nobody knows that they are here and he doesn’t even know whether his father still lives. And Eduardo desperately doesn’t want to die in here. There is silence again until Dustin speaks up. From his deep breathes Eduardo can tell he is trying to calm down.

“I am sorry, Eduardo. I shouldn’t cry or give up, I know. It’s just so hard. What am I supposed to do? Every time I wake up I am still tied up and I have to piss myself and I never know whether Chris is still here. Sometimes, when we’re lucky and both awake at the same time, we can talk before he comes, but most of the times we can’t and I don’t know whether it would be better or worse if he was away. I would worry about him so much, but at least he wouldn’t be here in this godforsaken place, wherever that may be.”

“It’s okay”, Eduardo says. “By the way, we are in the basement of the high school.”

“Really? How do you know?”

“Because he found me here. Me and my dad.” At the mention of him, Eduardo’s stomach hurts. Let him be alright, he prays.

Dustin attempts a laugh. It sounds broken and sad. “I always said this place would kill someday. Never thought it’d be in the literal meaning.”

“Hey, I could check you before he got us. None of you was seriously injured. But...” He remembers the burns on the arms of the blonde boy (Chris was his name).

“But what?”

“Dustin, did he… you know… hurt you?”

Silence again. “You mean, apart from dragging us here and tying us up and…” Dustin takes another deep breath. “No, he didn’t torture me. But once when I woke up, Chris was screaming. He wouldn’t talk about it, though.”

Eduardo nods, then he remembers Dustin can’t see him. “He had burns on his arms. Nothing serious, but it certainly hurt.”

Yet another moment of silence. Then, Dustin speaks up again, but this time his voice sounds like steel. “You are absolutely sure that we are in school?”

“Positive.”

“And it can’t be later than Tuesday, I think. So there might be students up there, people who’d hear us if we screamed?”

“You didn’t try that already?” Eduardo asks surprised.

“Of course. Right after I was captured, I screamed for hours. But that was probably either early morning or late afternoon, so maybe the school was empty. I never tried after that.”

“But what if he turns up?”

“Eduardo, I spend the last week here. If we don’t do this now, when will we?” Of course, Eduardo can see Dustin’s point.

 

“So, you plotting an escape, then?” A voice asks from the darkness. It is Mr. Parker.

“What are you and what did you do to my father?” Eduardo spits out.

“You don’t really want to know. And I killed him.” This is the answer Eduardo dreaded. He chooses to not believe it for now.

“Then why didn’t you kill me, too?” His voice is shaking.

“He tried to shoot me, so I shot him back. You didn’t try to kill me. You know, I am not really the bad guy here.”

Eduardo pointedly says nothing.

“Well yeah, okay, I am. So what?” Mr. Parker is clearly mocking him.

“I would have killed you if I had had the chance” Eduardo says and his voice doesn’t shake at all. He knows it is not the smartest thing to say, but he can’t help himself.

Now Mr. Parker flat-out laughs.

“Well, well, you shouldn’t talk like that or you won’t get to try your impeccable plan after all.”

 

Suddenly there is a burst of light and a scream. Eduardo flinches. It is very bright and he can see Mr. Parker stumbling to the ground. Behind him there is that kid, Jesse, from Math class. In his hands he appears to be holding a bloody sword.

For a moment, Eduardo considers it to be a hallucination, but his body feels painfully real and besides, he can see the hands of that Jesse kid. Eduardo once read that you can’t see hands in dreams.

Mr. Parker lands on top of one of the bodies. A second later he is gone.

From what Eduardo can see, that boy is, too. Jesse stops glowing, but after a moment, there is light again. After a shock second, Eduardo recognizes his father’s flashlight.

 

“Who are you?” Eduardo asks. He is frightened and shaking.

“I am an angel of the Lord.” The kid’s voice is very deep and sounds old.

Eduardo does not believe in god, nor in angels, but he is not in any position to judge, really. Besides, the boy just saved his life. There are more pressing matters at hand.

“Who, or rather what was Mr. Parker? Did you kill it?”

The boy looks directly at him for the first time and Eduardo notices how blue his eyes are.

(They remind him of something, but he can’t place what.)

“He was an arch angel, the fallen one, Lucifer. And unfortunately I just wounded him.”

Eduardo feels dizzy.

“Do you mean to tell me we were kidnapped by the devil?”

“Yes.”

 

Jesse touches his chains and just like that, they vanish. He also frees all the others. In the light, Eduardo can see his father  lying on the ground.

The fact that he wore no chains makes him swallow.

He tries to find a pulse, but when he touches his father’s arm he can already tell it is far too cold.

Eduardo doesn’t cry. He just feels empty.

 

Dustin sits up. He looks frightened and surprised

“Jesse?” He croaks, rubbing his wrists. Eduardo can see ugly marks from where the chains were.

The angel turns around.

“No, my name is Marcus, your friend Jesse is merely a vessel I am possessing.”

The kid looks angry.

“Then get out of him right now! What did you do to him?”

Now the angel actually looks shocked. “I did nothing to him, he volunteered for this. He is spending his time in heaven.”

“That means he is coming back?” The boy looks hopeful. “I am sorry.” The angel says. “I do not know.”

Then Dustin takes a look around.

“Where is Chris?”

 

The angel answers. “He is a prophet of the Lord. The devil took him. I do not know where. We will try to find him.”

Eduardo still holds his father’s cold hand.

“I will help.” There is more determination in his voice than he thought he would have.

“We know you are a great hunter, Eduardo Saverin. You shall help us on our quest. It will be deeply appreciated.” Eduardo nods exhaustedly.

“So will I.”  Dustin says. He doesn’t hesitate at all.

“Dustin,” Eduardo says. “Look, there is nothing you can do.” He looks at Jesse, Marcus who nods.

“While your courage honors you, there is no way you could be of use. You are not familiar with the world of lore.”

Dustin looks like an angry little kid. “But they have _Chris_. I can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

Eduardo understands how helpless he feels. “I’m sorry, Dustin.” He says.

 

Eduardo carries his father’s body to the impala. It is heavy but Eduardo can’t really feel anything.

All he can think of is that he is alone now.

For a moment he thinks about where he should burn him. But then he realizes any place would do. It is not like he can bury him next to his wife in Brazil.

All he needs to do is be thorough. But Eduardo always is.

 

He builds the fire on a lonely field a few miles out of town, nobody would see him there.

Eduardo is not quite sure what he thinks would happen as he sees his father’s body, wrapped in a simple bed sheet, turn into ash. Maybe a solution, an idea, anything, what is sure his father would have expected from him.

Maybe he waits for some moment to flash before his eyes, like a montage in the movies. But he only sees the fire that is nothing more than a fire

He feels empty.

 

“He was a good man.” A voice behind him says. Marcus, the angel.

Eduardo turns around.

“What are you doing here?” he asks. He doesn’t know whether he is angry, he probably should be. This is a private moment after all.

“We want to talk about a strategy.”

“We?”

“I speak for my garrison. Angels do not have a concept of individuality. So I am speaking for heaven.”

Eduardo nods.

“So you are really an angel, then?”

“What else should we be?” Marcus asks.

Now Eduardo gets annoyed. He knows it probably isn’t fair, but it has been a hard day for him.

“For god’s sake, Mark. If you talk about yourself, don’t use the plural form. It sounds like the pluralis maiestatis.”

The angel looks confused. “What does my father have to do with this? But if you prefer, _I_ will refer to myself in the singular form.”

Eduardo sighs.

“What is it that is so urgent that it can’t even wait for after the funeral of my father?”

“The devil kidnapped a prophet.” Mark says it like he expects Eduardo to understand. He doesn’t and it just makes him angrier.

“Then why don’t you just work a miracle and find him? Aren’t you supposed to do that anyways?” He has no idea what angels of the lord are supposed to be doing.

But Mark does not seem to notice his ironic undertones.

“He protected himself against all kinds of divine interventions. So we need your help. Do you know any resources that might help us find out where there is an unnaturally high population of demons?”

“There is this man I know, Bobby Singer. I could ask him, but he doesn’t usually go out hunting anymore. Still, he is the central of the hunter network.”

“That would be appreciated.

For a moment, there is silence. Then Eduardo asks: “But why did he kidnap that boy, Chris?”

 

“Because he is a prophet of the Lord. Lucifer stole a weapon from heaven, too and we don’t know where it is. It is, however, strong enough to destroy the galaxy. Some say it is able to kill god, but we obviously have never tested that theory. Anyways, heaven needs it back.”

“But why?” Eduardo asks. “Why should anybody even want that weapon and why would he use it?”

“Because he is the devil.” Mark answers simply, but to Eduardo it sounds very lame. On the other hand, he understands that Mark would probably not tell him heaven’s secrets.

 

“Then why is the galaxy not dead yet? Why would a man, or an angel, or the devil himself come to what is probably the least interesting town on earth to kidnap a few high school students if he had the power to blow up everything?”

“Because the weapon is secured, by more than just its whereabouts. To use it, the devil needs someone who understands how it works. A prophet.”

“So you need to find them before they get that thing to work?”

“Exactly. But Chris has only recently discovered his powers. It will take him some time to operate the weapon. Lucifer is probably not torturing him before he has to, he will try to convince him first, tempt him and use his sins and desires against him.”

 

“But he tortured him in that basement, Dustin told me.”

“That was when Lucifer thought he knew how to use the weapon. He has since understood that the boy doesn’t know.”

For a moment, Eduardo thinks about the way the boy smiled on the photo and about the burns on his arms. He hopes they make it to him on time.

 “When you say it is some time until Chris can fully operate the weapon, how much time is that exactly?”

Mark shrugs. “It is not like any of this has ever happened before. It is long since angel wandered the earth with man. But I would estimate anything between a week and a few years, although Lucifer would not wait so long.”

“So basically, we have a week to find the devil or the world blows up?”

“Yes. How far are you willing to go to find him?” Mark asks. He sounds genuinely curious.

“He killed my father.” Eduardo answers simply. Mark nods. “We will talk to you when you have got the information from that acquaintance of yours.” Then he disappears.

Eduardo sits for hours on the cold ground and watches the flames die.

He considers making a tombstone for his father, but what for? Eduardo is pretty certain he won’t return to this town.

So he just wonders if, when there are angels, there is a heaven, too. He wonders whether his father went there.

 

The next day, Eduardo decides to leave the town. There is no use in staying any longer.

He feels helpless. He wishes his father were here.

He knows that by wishing that, he disappoints him. Be your own man, Eduardo, he tells himself.

The Impala seems terribly empty, so Eduardo closes his eyes for a second, then looks at the hotel for a last time

(Where his father spend his last night,

 Where they spend the last night _together_ )

And decides to drive away.

But suddenly there is that kid from the basement, Dustin, running up to the car. He is knocking at the window.

Eduardo rolls it down.

 

“Dustin? What is the matter” he asks, trying not to sound annoyed or worried.

“Eduardo, where are you going?” The boy looks a lot better now, without the blood and less pale.

“I’m leaving the town, looking for the thing that killed my father.” Dustin already knows that.

“Then what about Chris?”

“I will try to save him.” He can see the worry in Dustin’s eyes and it’s almost sweet how much that boy cares about his best friend.

“I’m coming with you” Dustin says. He sounds determined and Eduardo wants to laugh.

“No, you won’t. You heard the angel” He answers.

“I’m not staying here. If what Jesse said is true then he is with the devil now. I have to help him.”

Eduardo is definitely annoyed now. It is not as if he doesn’t know how Dustin feels, because he does, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dustin doesn’t know anything about hunting at all.

(But still, it would be nice to have someone travel with him. Somebody to make the Impala feel less empty.)

“What do you think you can do? Have you ever even touched a real gun?”

Dustin blushes and looks down for a moment, but when he looks up again, Eduardo can see that he won’t let go. He considers driving away for a moment.

“No I haven’t.” Dustin says. “But I’m good at videogames and I’m quite smart, believe it or not. Besides, it is not as if your guns seemed to work on Lucifer.”

There is nothing Eduardo can say to that and Dustin senses his chance.

“Listen, I get that you are the dark mysterious stranger that is good with weapons and I am just a small town kid that has no idea of anything and if this was about anyone other than Chris, I wouldn’t bother you. Problem is just that this isn’t and I am going to find Chris with or without you, it just makes more sense if we work together on this.”

“But what would your parents say? They thought they’d lost you and now you want to leave again, not even a day later?” Dustin chews on his lower lip and Eduardo can see that it is bugging him.

“I’ll explain it to them as good as I can. It’s not like they can stop me, it was my eighteenth birthday two weeks ago.”

Eduardo tries to read Dustin. He is a barely eighteen year old boy who likes videogames and never touched a real gun and yet he is willing to give up his family and his life to run away with a complete stranger (who has a penchant for guns) to hunt the devil just to save his best friend.

Eduardo nods.

“Do you think it’s a wise thing to do? I mean, you just survived a kidnapping and now you just want to elope with a stranger to hunt the devil?”

Dustin looks like he doesn’t know whether he is expected to laugh.

“I don’t fucking care.” He answers.

Eduardo can’t help but smile.

“Okay, get in!” He says. He knows he is probably going to regret this, but there is no part of this that isn’t already completely crazy.

Dustin does not even hesitate. He opens the door and there he is, next to Eduardo. He doesn’t even have a backpack.

“Where are your things?” Eduardo asks.

“My things?”

“You know, toothbrush, clothes, stuff like that. Your possessions.”

“Oh um…” Dustin blushes again. This time Eduardo rolls his eyes.

“Where do you live?”

“You are not getting rid of me!” Dustin says.

“No, but let’s drive to your house to get your stuff.”

“How do I know you are not just driving away?” He asks suspiciously. Eduardo grins. Driving away would probably be the best thing he could do for Dustin.

“If you really wanna do this, you gotta trust me, boy.”

Dustin doesn’t look convinced.

“No, I have a better idea” he says. “You come in with me.”

Eduardo shrugs. Dustin tells him the way to his house and they drive in silence.

 

They pull up before Dustin’s house, one of those typical middle class American homes and Eduardo can’t help but feeling very out of place.

“My parents are working so nobody should be home. They wanted to take the day off but I told them it wasn’t necessary.” Dustin explains. He looks guilty.

“And you would have just run off without telling them anything at all?” Eduardo asks him, wondering how anybody could do that. He would give anything to talk to his father or his mother once again.

Dustin shrugs. “No, I would have called them as soon as we were far enough away for them to stop me. Besides, where are we going?”

Eduardo shrugs. “South Dakota first, I know some people there who might be able to help us.  The angels will get in touch.”

Dustin nods and gets out of the car.

 

They enter the house and it smells like cake and cleaning powder. It is very tidy.

Dustin goes straight to his room and Eduardo follows him quietly. When they cross the living room, he notices that there are photos everywhere, of Dustin and what he assumes to be his parents. The people on the photos always smile. It is idyllic.

Dustin’s room is the exact opposite, there are clothes lying on the floor, his bed is unmade and the room is dominated by a desk with a big monitor and a laptop.

It looks like the typical teenage room with Star Wars posters on the wall, a bookshelf, a wardrobe and on the night stand, there is a photo of Dustin and a blonde boy hugging. Their grins are so huge that they don’t seem to fit on their faces. Eduardo instantly recognizes Chris.

“Sit down; I’ll try to be as quick as possible.” Dustin says.

Carefully, Eduardo sits on the edge of the bed.

 

Dustin fishes a big blue suitcase from under his bed and opens his closet. He throws in some underwear and socks, folded to balls by his mom, some trousers, shirts and sweaters.

“What do you think I will need?” He asks.

Eduardo shrugs. “I have always relied on the basic necessities. Best to travel light. We don’t have that much space.” He looks at Dustin’s feet. He is wearing Converse.

“Maybe you do have different shoes, though? My job usually involves a lot of running, sometimes on well, strange ground. Shoes are important.”

Dustin nods and looks at Eduardo’s heavy leather boots.

“I think my dad has some old hiking boots. They are ugly as fuck, but well.”

He leaves the room and returns after a few minutes with a pair of old leather hiking boots. They are really ugly but they also look durable, waterproof and warm. Eduardo has learned the importance of that.

“Are they your size though?” He asks because nothing is worse than unfitting shoes.

Dustin nods.

“Okay, a jacket, then? It is spring and sometimes the nights still get cold. I can’t guarantee that we won’t be spending some of them in the car.” Dustin nods again.

“I’ve got a leather jacket that should work just fine.” He goes to fetch it and Eduardo nods approvingly. While the boy is nothing even near to well equipped, it will do for now.

Dustin gets some toiletries and his laptop.

“Anything else?” He asks.

“Let me think. You’ve got any laundry detergent? That would be lovely. Also each and every pain medication you can get your hands on. I’ve got bandages and stuff in the car, but you run out of it faster than you can imagine. By the way, do you know first aid?”

“Yeah, we learned CPR and so on in school.”

“Thank God!” Eduardo exclaims. “It would have been tedious to teach you that now. I presume you don’t have any useful guns but I have got enough anyways. But food would be lovely.”

They raid the kitchen together and take a lot of canned food to stay alive for a week.

 

“Oh yeah, and do you have a suit and some nice shoes? We might have to appear formal some time.”

“Well, yes, but I bought it for the bar mitzvah of my cousin. It’s not, you know, nice.”

“Show me.”

Dustin pulls a very ugly, badly cut suit out of his closet. It looks uncomfortable to just look at it.

“Never mind, we’ll buy you one when we are in a bigger town. Take your shoes, though.”

 

Finally, they have packed three bags of food and a huge suitcase.

Then they all fit it into the trunk of the Impala.

Dustin eyes Eduardo’s collection of guns suspiciously but he does not say anything.

“Got everything?” Eduardo asks one last time. “Laptop and phone chargers, soap, underwear, anything missing?”

“Oh wait!” Dustin says. “What about books?”

“Books?” Eduardo asks. “I have a stack of the usual high school textbooks somewhere on the backseat. But other than that, we don’t really have space for that.”

“Give me a minute!” Dustin says and vanishes for a few minutes. He returns with a small backpack.

“I wrote my mum a few lines and I have three books in there. My favorites.”

Eduardo nods. “Then let’s go.”

“Wait! What about money?” Dustin looks a bit afraid. “I have a bank account with college money but I can’t access it until then and my other bank account holds 300$. And I don’t want to steal from my parents.”

“Don’t worry. I’m quite good at faking credit cards.” Eduardo laughs at Dustin’s facial expression.

“But that’s criminal.” Dustin says.

“No shit.” At that, they both get into the car and drive away.


	3. On the Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eduardo and Dustin are on the Road

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry,  
> about posting so late and everything...but I spend all my time studying so I don't really have the time to write.  
> I love you

“Okay, here are the rules” Eduardo says.

Dustin nods.

“First: You do what I say. This is the most important rule. When I say duck you duck, when I say run you run and when I say surrender you surrender, even when whatever I say does not make sense to you. I am the one who knows what he is doing so chances are I’ll know it better than you.”

Dustin nods again. “Understood.”

“Second, don’t ask any personal questions. Best, don’t ask any questions at all, except if you want me to repeat something I already told you. I’ll tell you what you have to know and the rest is none of your business.” He can see Dustin wants to protest at that but this is not up for discussion. “Understood?” he asks. “Yes.” Dustin murmurs.

“Okay, and third, don’t do anything stupid. Seriously, don’t. I’ll try and teach you as much as I can but I can’t teach you everything. I’ve spend all my life doing this, I was raised for it. And the problem is, when what you are doing is stupid, you probably end up getting us both killed and I’ll try and avoid that. And fourth, don’t criticize my music!” At that, they both smile.

“Okay”, Dustin says and Eduardo turns the record player on.

 

“Metallica?” Dustin asks.

“Remember rules number two and four?” Eduardo asks, fake warning in his voice.

“No, I love Metallica, you just don’t seem the kind of guy to like it, that’s all.”

Eduardo hesitates. He doesn’t really want to talk about it but he knows that he is bound to this guy for the next weeks at least and  he doesn’t seem so bad.

“It was my dad’s favorite and by the way, what do you mean I don’t seem the kind of guy? I kill evil things for a living.” He smiles.

“You really do, don’t you?” Dustin says with awe in his voice.

“I thought that’s why you are coming with me?”

“Yes, it is but  it is… strange. But awesome. Strangely awesome. Awesomely strange. I couldn’t really believe it until now, because the devil, really?

It is like a bad movie, you know, so far-fetched. I thought you were just a bit insane.”

“You would have gotten into a car with a maniac? And you try to tell me you are smart?”

Dustin shrugs. “For Chris.”

 

 

“You really care a lot about him, don’t you?” Eduardo asks.

“Obviously.” Dustin says.

“Must be great to have a friend like you. I never…” Eduardo realizes he does not want to talk about it (at least not yet). But Dustin seems to have waited for an opportunity to talk about Chris.

“He’s worth it! God, I can’t believe he got kidnapped by the devil- still, that’s very Chris-ey, he attracts all kinds of trouble. One day in fourth grade he got cornered by like, a dozen of bullies, high school kids, must’ve been years older than us. I tried to rescue him and got a black eye, but eventually we could run away.”

He looks almost wistful at that. Whatever they’re up against now, it will be a lot harder to defeat than primary school kids

“You look out for him, then?” Eduardo asks. Dustin smiles.

“Yeah, kind of. As I said, he often gets in trouble. And..uh…he came out as gay in seventh grade. Some people have problems with that even though that’s bullshit.” Eduardo can see Dustin eying him carefully, waiting for his reaction. Eduardo knows that his father did, in fact, have a problem with homosexuals, but he himself grew up with monsters trying to kill him. He could not possibly care less about trivia like that. When he says nothing, Dustin seems satisfied.

 

They leave Massachusetts about an hour after that. As soon as they are in New York, Eduardo starts looking out for a forest which is not hard to find here.

He drives into a small road about fifteen minutes in. It is well in the afternoon and they have really no time to lose but there are some things to be done and this abandoned place looks perfect for that.

“What are we doing?” Dustin asks.

“Do you remember rule number two?” Eduardo answers. Dustin nods. “Sorry.”

“Get out.” Eduardo says. He sounds harsh.

Dustin flinches, looks like he is about to protest, but then obeys. Eduardo is almost a little proud of him, as the other one trusts him to not just drive away.

He exits the car himself.

“I’m going to teach you some things and you better take care because one day they might save your life. Also, we might establish some new rules” Dustin nods.

“Okay, Lesson One: First Aid” Eduardo starts. “What do you know? You said you know CPR, but do you know how to make a pressure bandage? By the way, rule number five: don’t ever lie to me!”

Dustin contemplates the question for a second. “No, I know normal bandaging, though.”

“Fine. Did you pack a scarf?”

“Yeah, actually.”

“That’s excellent. Go get it.”

Dustin goes to the trunk and after a few seconds of searching, he finds it.

“Okay. Now you make about five layers normal bandage around my arm, but very tight.” Dustin complies. “Now you take a stone, or anything else you can find, really, put it there and then complete the bandage. But be careful you make it tight enough.” Dustin finds a stone big enough and does as he is told.

After about a minute, Eduardo judges the result: “Well, actually, that’s usable. Not perfect, though, you can make it a lot tighter, that will stop the blood sooner.”

After that, he explains Dustin a lot of stuff, like how to make an emergency tracheotomy with a kitchen knife and a biro pen, how to recognize different poisons and how to treat burns.

Dustin tries to remember everything.

Finally, Eduardo deems it enough and he says: “Enough of that for now, I’ll teach you the rest when we need it. Lesson Two: Fake Identities. We can’t have you running around with your real name and data. When is your full name and birthday?”

“Dustin Moskovitz, 22nd of May, 1994.”

“Okay, now listen, the month and day of your birth stay the same, but we’ll make you three years older so nobody gets suspicious when we investigate. I wish we could make you even older, but nobody is going to buy that.

Dustin is not that common a name either, but I think Justin will do. That should not be too hard to remember. We will fake the cards later. By the way, do you have a pass photo?”

“No, but why would I even need a fake ID?  I have my own with me.”

“Yeah, but we might cross the ways of… people who you would not want near your home address. Or your family for that matter. Besides, you can’t even go to a bar to drink a beer with your real ID.”

Dustin nods.

“Okay, so you get this credit card to the name of Dustin Mazzello, the code is 2213, like on most of my credit cards. They are all fake, so don’t be surprised if one doesn’t work, but there should be some money on this one. Do you think you can fake the signature if necessary?”

Dustin eyes the card for a moment, and then nods again.

“By the way, your name is probably going to change every time we investigate something, the most important part is, oh, let’s make it rule number six: Nobody is ever to notice anything. Think you get that?”

“Yeah.” Dustin smiles.

“It’s not that hard”, Eduardo tries to assure him. “I mean, you have to get used to it at first, but it will be alright. And if the police ever capture you, rule number seven, don’t panic. I’ve been captured often, but they can’t really do anything unless you say something. Also, I’ll get you out. Now, how good a liar are you?”

“Um… I don’t know, not a good one I think.”

Eduardo scratches his head. “That’s bad. Really bad. You need to sell your story. Do you have any acting experience or something?”

“Well, you mean other than a sheep in third grade nativity play?”

Eduardo laughs. “I don’t think that’s going to help us at all. We’ll create you some fake identities, better you make up some details about them, you know, a backstory. It makes it far easier when you are actually talking to people.

And best if you use people you know as a reference, I don’t know friends or characters of your favorite TV show. That makes them appear more vivid.

But we probably have to switch identities some times. We’ll pretend to be from ministries and so on. With my dad, we used to pretend we were FBI agents, me being his junior partner. But unfortunately we are too young for that now. Nobody would buy it.” Eduardo looks concerned for a moment.

Then he shakes his head. “Nevermind, we’ll figure something out.”

 

He gives Dustin a lot of advice on how to fake accents, how to vary his way of walking, his mimic and his posture until he is convinced that Dustin will pull of a believable character.

He also gives him a lot of advice, like that people rather correct you than give you information or that, if you develop a remarkable quirk, people will remember that rather than your face.

He also teaches him how to blend into crowds.

It takes up almost two hours until Eduardo finally sighs. “I think it is time for lesson three.” He says.

“What is that?” Dustin asks.

“Fighting.” Eduardo answers. He stands next to Dustin.

Without a warning, he shoves him. Dustin stumbles.

“Ow man, what was that for?”

“Sorry, I needed to see which leg you’d use to catch yourself. I assume you are right handed.” (Eduardo watches out for stuff like that, because he always anticipates an attack.) Dustin nods.

“Okay, so your strong leg is your left one, put it here” He marks a spot with his foot. “Right, like you want to take a step. Now balance your weight. That is important.” Dustin tries it and shifts a bit.

“Now put your hands up in front of your face. About the height of your nose. Be careful to guard your neck with your arms. Take care of your thumb, don’t put it into your hands, you might break it. Now punch.”

It looks ridiculous. Dustin isn’t very strong and he almost loses his balance at punching.

“No, not like that, you have to twist your hand. Like that.” Eduardo shows him, but it takes another twenty minutes until Dustin’s punches come even close to Eduardo’s expectations. They are still very far from being dangerous.

“Okay, I really hope you never have to use this, but rule number eight: always anticipate a fight! Seriously, there is nobody you can trust. Even if you think you know people, you have seen what happened to your friend Jesse. Sometimes people just aren’t themselves.”

Dustin nods. The more he learns to fight, the more he starts to doubt he’ll be of any help at all.

 

“Now I’m going to attack you and you are going to block.” Eduardo says. Dustin is trying his best but he is far too slow to do anything against Eduardo’s fist. It wasn’t even especially hard, but it still hurts.

Dustin bits his lip and he catches the next blow instead.

They fight for minutes and slowly, every muscle in Dustin’s body is starting to hurt.

Eduardo senses his exhaustion, but he also knows how crucial it is to be able to defend oneself.

Finally, he has mercy.

“Let’s establish rule number nine. Never get into hand-to-hand combat when you can avoid it.”

“Understood.” Dustin says.

Eduardo smiles at that. “Okay, now go to the trunk and pick a rifle, I’ll teach you how to shoot.”

Dustin’s face lights up at that in almost childish glee.

 

Dustin comes back with a pistol, one of those Eduardo always liked.

“Do you know how this thing works?” He asks.

Dustin shakes his head. “Damn.” Eduardo curses. “I thought every boy in the United States knows stuff about guns. I don’t have the time to give you real classes about all the different kinds of guns around so let’s make a compromise. You get this one and it’s yours. You’ll get used to it. It’s a good one and I’ll show you how to use shoulder arms and so on when we have time. For now showing you how to use this has to be enough.”

Dustin looks at the rifle and for a moment, he can’t imagine shooting it, especially not at a person.

But Eduardo cuts right through his doubts.

“Okay, there are some myths about guns that we have to clear up. First, I’ll show you how to clean, check and load this baby. That’s a disadvantage of pistols over, say, shoulder guns. You have to check them regularly. But of course, pistols are a lot easier to carry and especially, to hide, which make them better suited to our cause. Plus, you can use handguns with one hand which gives you a technical advantage. Since you are not familiar with guns however, you should aim with both hands.”

Eduardo shows him the ammunition and how to check the gun.

Dustin tries to be as attentive as possible.

Finally Eduardo deems him fit and gives him the gun.

“Do you see that tree over there? Shoot at it. By the way, the gun is pre-cocked, so there is no need to drama it up like in the movies.”

Dustin takes the gun in both of his hands and shoots. He misses the tree, but the blowback almost sweeps him of his feet and the loud noise makes him flinch.

Eduardo looks almost apologetic. “You got to practice a lot, but chances are, you won’t hit in real combat anyway. The odds to hit a vital organ of a moving target ten yards away are 1 to 30 or something. This is good when you are the moving target but not so good when they are coming to get you. By the way, don’t try to aim for the legs or some of that bullshit. When you shoot, you shoot to kill.”

“Can you do something against the noise, though? I went deaf for a few seconds after I fired.”

“I really wish I could, man, but silencers don’t work like in the movies, either, it is still pretty damn loud and I doubt there is going to be one around when you fight. Better you just get used to it.”

 

Dustin shoots at the tree a few times and after a while, he relaxes.

He doubts he will be ever as good as Eduardo, but the helplessness goes away (at least a little bit).

Eduardo smiles as he watches him.

Suddenly, Dustin remembers something.

“But Eduardo, this would maybe help against a normal person, but it is not a normal person we are after, right. I mean, we are trying to kill the devil. How are the guns of any use?”

Eduardo sighs.

“It is a long way to the devil and honestly, there are probably a lot of people, creatures, whatever surrounding him. And I hope some of them are at least to be mortally wounded by guns. There are different ways, depending on the creature.  I’ll teach you, soon.”

 

“Shit, I almost forgot that this is your life.” Dustin smiles. “I mean, not the shooting part but the supernatural part. And there I was, dreaming about a zombie apocalypse and it is already here.”

Eduardo’s face darkens at that.

“Come into the car, Dustin. We’ve got places to go.” Dustin nods and gets into the car, still holding the gun in his hands.

“There’s got to be a holster on the back seat somewhere” Eduardo says, nodding at the gun. Dustin nods.

When he puts the gun on his hip, he smiles. “I feel like a cowboy now.”

Eduardo laughs.

 

“Ready for lection four?” He asks when they are back on the freeway and Dustin nods.

“What is it?”

“The supernatural part, as you called it. You said that the devil is not to be defied with bullets and that goes for a lot of other shit out there. Shapeshifters, like werewolves or skinwalkers for example, you need a classic silver bullet, like they say in most of the movies.”

“You’ve met werewolves?” Dustin asks, aghast.

“Killed them, it was a nasty bunch, especially because they travel in packs and making silver bullets is kind of a pain in the ass since the melting temperature is quite high.”

Dustin nods. “But… werewolves… what other myths are true?”

“Pretty much all of them, actually. I don’t know how people could ever forget about them.”

“Vampires, too? And what about zombies or ghosts or magic?”

“Vampires, yes. You kill them with a wooden spike through their heart, but you have to burn the body after that. Fire is always good, by the way. It kills almost everything.

Zombies by your definition are walking bodies, which could be everything from necromancy to inferii, but they should be stopped if you burn them or shoot their legs of which makes them immobile. They can still crawl, though, better set them on fire as fast as you can.

Except you mean a virus, then there is the Croatoan Virus, nobody has actually ever found a way to heal that one. It is said to be caused by demons.

If it is the Croatoan Virus you have to be careful to not get in contact with the blood of the infected, kind of like with AIDS, only that the Croatoan people want to spread the disease.

Ghosts exists, the most common form is the spirit, which often haunts places or people linked to their deaths. Killing a spirit is not that hard, you have to find the place where the haunting person was buried, exhume them, salt their bones and burn them.

By the way, salt is also very good against demons which we probably will encounter since it is the devil we are fighting against. It does not kill them, though. You can only kill them if you perform an exorcism, complete with Latin chant. You don’t happen to speak Latin, do you?”

Dustin shakes his head. “I took Spanish, sorry.”

“I didn’t expect you to. Nobody takes Latin these days. Under your seat should be a book with sigils and exorcism chants, you should probably learn one by heart, just to be sure.

You can also trap a demon with the devil’s trap and hurt him with holy water.”

Dustin bends over and fishes the book from under his seat.

It is heavy and old, leather bound and smells very good.

“The devil’s trap is one the first page.” Eduardo tells him. “There is a pen and some paper somewhere in the glove compartment, you should probably learn to draw one.”

Dustin opens the book and marvels at the old paper beneath his fingers.

On the first page, there is actually a pentacle surrounded by strange signs.

“This one?” He asks.

 

Eduardo nods and Dustin pulls out the pen and the paper and spreads them on the book. It is hard to draw in the car, especially because the road is not completely even. After a while he finishes his drawing.

He shows it to Eduardo who nods approvingly. “You are a natural talent” he smiles.

This time it is Dustin who rolls his eyes.

Eduardo tells him a lot more about creatures he hadn’t dreamed could exist, and told him a lot of stories about how witches are not like Hermione Granger at all and how he could recognize a possessed person, while Dustin doodles devil’s traps on the paper and tries to burn the shape into his brain.

 

Finally, they pull into a little town and stop in front of a copy shop.

Dustin looks at Eduardo questioningly.

“We still need some fake badges for you.” Eduardo smiles.

“But don’t you think somebody will notice?” Dustin asks.

“They never do.” Eduardo gets out of the car and pulls a folder from the backseat. There are a lot of blank IDs from different companies and ministries in there.

After a while, Dustin has three new identities: Justin Mazzello, a rich Ivy League student from Maine (Eduardo gave him a lot of background knowledge about frat life in Harvard, making Dustin wonder whether he went there once. “We investigated”, is the short answer he receives), Justin Whitman, a young man who happens to work both for Greenpeace and the New York Times, as well as Justin Madden, who works for various ministries.

For a second, Dustin doubts that he can pull this through, but then he remembers Chris and he thinks -anything for him.

 

Eduardo proposes spending the night in a hotel, but Dustin says that it would be both faster and safer to drive through the night, taking turns behind the wheel and Eduardo agrees.

In the evening, Dustin’s mom calls.

She found his notice and worries about him. Dustin closes his eyes.

“I’m with a friend, Eduardo, and we are visiting relatives of his, I am fine mom, really.”

He makes up some lie about having to get away from home after the kidnapping and after what happened to Chris.

He knows that his mom, who knows nothing about the devil, thinks that Chris is dead.

He hears her sigh, but there is nothing she can say to that so she just makes him promise to call every day or she will call the police to get him.

When he reminds her that he is an adult now, she just sighs again.

Dustin hangs up and feels strangely empty.

He wonders if that’s what being grown-up feels like.

Eduardo eyes him from the side but says nothing.

They listen to music until Dustin falls asleep.

He never thought he would be able to sleep like that, with a complete stranger far from home, but after that day, he is just too exhausted.

He wakes up a few hours later and they are in Indiana already.

Eduardo looks tired and Dustin takes over driving. It’s not even a minute until Eduardo is asleep.

Not much happens during the next hours, he changes the tape a few times, always careful to not wake Eduardo, who doesn’t look peaceful at all in his sleep.

Dustin can see that he is clinging to the gun on his hip.

The sun starts to rise, slowly and then Dustin concentrates on the changing country.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry you had to wait so long! I will finish this

 

It is early morning when Eduardo wakes up.

“Where are we?” He asks, stretching.

“About an hour to Des Moines.”

Eduardo looks surprised. “How long did I sleep?”

“A bit more than four hours. I don’t know where in South Dakota your friend lives, but it shouldn’t be too long now.”

Eduardo nods.

“It’s about seven hours from Des Moines.”

“God, I need a coffee.” Dustin says and Eduardo looks at him and smiles.

 

They take a short break in the city; get a coffee and some bagels.

Dustin feels a lot better afterwards and sharing it with Eduardo makes him feel less alone and less lost.

He still knows that he is very far away from home.

As they walk through the city in the morning, the shops start to open and Eduardo actually drags him into a boutique to buy him a suit.

Testing them and putting them on is a lot of fun and when they finally buy one (complete with matching ties for the two of them) Dustin can’t help but wonder what Chris would say to it.

(He also knows how proud his mom would be, as he remembers how atrocious the last time buying a suit was. He wonders whether she’ll ever see him wearing his new one.)

They also stop for gas and then they are back on the road again.

 

After a while, they get tired of listening to music and they start to talk again. At first it is just Eduardo lecturing Dustin on the finer details of Christian mythology (Dustin is Jewish, after all, and even that he does not know a lot about), but soon they drift to other topics, from their childhood to their future aspirations to their favorite TV shows.

Turns out Eduardo never really had time to watch TV when he wasn’t injured lying in some motel room, so of course Dustin promises to introduce him to Doctor Who.

Eduardo looks amused when he listens to Dustin comparing Doctor Who and Star Trek and listing about a million features the respective shows have copied off one another.

“You know, I never really liked Science Fiction.” Eduardo says after a while.

“How can you not?” Dustin asks. “It makes real life so much more interesting.”

“My job is to hunt monsters.” Eduardo reminds him.

“Yeah,” Dustin agrees. “That probably makes you more the fantasy guy.”

But as it turns out, Eduardo isn’t a fantasy guy either.

(Dustin pretends to be dying when he finds out that Eduardo hasn’t even read Harry Potter, because really?)

But then he remembers something.

 

The next time they stop, they are having lunch in one of the freeway restaurants, and it tastes awful but neither complains. But before they get into the car again, Dustin takes one of his books out of the trunk.

“What’s that?” Eduardo asks.

“Harry Potter!” Dustin says. “And I’m going to read it to you. That is not open for discussion.” Eduardo, who is driving again for the last hour or so, is a good listener. He never interrupts and only laughs at the right parts, but he never misses one of those.

It is only when Eduardo tells him that they are reaching their destination in about ten minutes that Dustin stops, his voice hoarse, but feeling good.

 

“Who are those friends of yours we are visiting?” He wants to know.

“Bobby Singer, he is… was one of my dad’s oldest friends. He is a hunter, too, but he rarely leaves South Dakota now. He is, however the one with the greatest knowledge of all hunters, if there is anybody who can help us, then he’s the man. He also has connections to a lot of other hunters who might help us. Think of him as home base.

Besides, Mark, you know the angel who possesses that Jesse kid is going to meet up with us there.”

“The angels are siding with us?” Dustin asks. He has not understood everything Eduardo told him about Christian mythology, but from what he got; Lucifer once was an angel, too.

“Yes, and I really hope they have something up their sleeve.” Eduardo looks exhausted at that.

“That Mr. Singer, when you say he is a hunter like you, do you mean he hunts monsters? And the other hunters, too?”

Eduardo nods. “But if there are that many people out on the street, hunting supernatural beings, and so many beings threatening people, how come nobody notices them?”

“Oh, they are noticed alright. People just never credit them. Many of the unsolved murders are actually caused by monsters. They’d just call you crazy when you mention it.

But that’s how the hunters know where to look, it’s kind of obvious when you see the signs. Just be careful when you read the newspaper the next time.”

Dustin thinks about this for a short time. He doesn’t know how many people exactly vanish every year in the US, but he bets it’s a lot.

“So how come the hunters know about them?”

Eduardo shrugs. “It’s different for everyone. There are some secret communities, even families who have always known and carry the trade through generations. They have regular jobs and only cover a small area, it’s kind of a tradition. Things like that were far more common in the past, because people had a lesser standard of education, or maybe a higher one, depends on how you look at it.

Back then, everybody knew about the local legends and far more people believed in them. Today, though, most hunters are in for revenge, they lost a loved one and try to kill the killer or protect others. That’s why most hunters today are specialized, say they only kill vampires. Of course, today it is far easier to travel around since we have cars, that wasn’t possible hundred years ago

On the other hand, it is far harder to operate since the police are really cautious. A hundred years ago, nobody could have monitored all that bodies.”

“So how many hunters are there?” It is awesome and a lot scary, Dustin thinks. There is a whole world he had no idea about and yet, it had existed all that time.

Eduardo shrugs again.

“Hard to say, our job doesn’t allow us to maintain close relationships except for with the people we hunt with.

From what I know, I’d say about fifty people who travel around, us and Bobby included. They usually work in pairs. The others, it is even harder to say, since we have no idea how many monsters are actually out there. I mean, the travelers among us try to kill the most dangerous things, because they have more experience, but there is a lot small stuff that goes unnoticed. Like, not every spirit is malevolent, some just go their ways, someone has to take care of them.

Most of those creatures aren’t really monsters, they are just annoying, but in no way dangerous. You stumble upon them every once in a while, but it happens so rarely that there have to be people keeping them in check.”

“So are you and your father specialized?” Eduardo rolls his eyes.

“You don’t really seem to get rule number two, do you?” Dustin bites his lip but doesn’t look down.

“I just want to know as much as possible, just in case.” At that, Eduardo nods.

“Nothing wrong with that, kiddo.” For the fraction of a second, Dustin wants to protest at the nickname, but then he just smiles.

Eduardo continues. “Well, not as much as other hunters, so we really just try to clean up.” For a second, he doubts that he should tell Dustin the whole story about his family, but since the boy is already on a hunt with him, it doesn’t make sense to withhold knowledge.

“But there was a demon my dad tried to find. He believes…” Eduardo’s voice breaks for a second as he thinks about his parents. He wonders whether heaven really does exist. He wonders whether his parents met there.

“My mom died when I was a baby. She was pinned to the ceiling and then set on fire. The guy who did it was a demon, but not the usual kind. He had yellow eyes. Normal demons have black ones.”

There is a moment of silence. “I’m sorry”, Dustin finally says.

Eduardo just sighs.

“So… um, those hunter friends of yours, what shall I tell them?”

Eduardo looks at him incredulously. “What do you mean, what shall you tell them?”

“Well, I can hardly say that I am Dustin called Justin who met you three days ago and now eloped to find a friend.”

“Why not?”

“Doesn’t it sound… well, weird to you?” Eduardo chuckles.

“Those guys are hunters. Weird is practically their job description. That’s a rule among hunters, by the way: don’t lie. We all have guns and we all rely on each other, trust is the most valuable thing for us. If you lie to the hunting community, no matter why, you are out. And, especially for you, that means you are a dead man. Also, don’t withhold knowledge, it could get people killed. When we are hunting, we always try to tell Bobby where we are. If we don’t message him after a week, he’ll send someone looking. The only reason why I haven’t phoned him about Father already is the fact that I am straight on my way to tell him in person.”

 

“I’m nervous.” Dustin admits.

Eduardo laughs. “Get used to it.”

Then he leaves the highway for a smaller road. A minute later, he parks in front of a house.

It actually looks a lot nicer than Dustin could have imagined. It looks like a normal house, really. Middle Class, not too old, there seems to be a nice garden.

“Does your friend have a regular job?” Dustin asks.

Eduardo shakes his head. “He used to have a junkyard, but he concentrates on hunting business now, coordinating us all, trying to find all kinds of old books and spells and the weird things you need for them, you know?”

They walk to the front door and Eduardo pushes the bell. After a few seconds, the door is opened by a man in his late forties or early fifties.

“Eduardo boy!” he exclaims and hugs him briefly. “Where is your father? And who’s that?”

Dustin tries his best smile. “My name is Dustin Moskovitz, Sir. I am Eduardo’s…” he hesitates for a moment “companion.” He holds out his hand.

The man takes a long look at him and Dustin knows he’s being evaluated. Finally the man takes his outstretched hand and shakes it. His grip is painfully firm. “Bobby Singer.” He grumbles. “Since when do the Saverins take companions?”

 

Eduardo’s face falls. “There are no Saverins anymore, Bobby. Dad was killed three days ago. That’s why we’re here.”

Bobby’s face falls slightly, but other than that he shows no reaction. “Let’s go inside” he says.

They go into what appears to be the strangest living room Dustin has ever entered.

The furniture is old and must have cost a lot of money once upon a time. Now, however, it only looks very used and unloved, an impression that is supported by the dirty grey wallpaper and the old-fashioned curtains that look like they have never been washed.

What raises Dustin’s attention are the books, though. They are standing on huge shelves that cover the entire length of the room or they are strewn across the table, some open and upside down, some bookmarked with what looks like very colorful feathers. Some are huge, leather-bound volumes that look so much like they belong into a fantasy world (which they do, Dustin has to remind himself), others only thin notebooks that are almost falling apart, held together by thin ribbons or staples.

And then, of course, there is the other stuff. On the fireplace are bones, big enough that Dustin refuses to think about them further, beneath the window he can see a line of salt and the walls are covered in symbols that resemble those Dustin drew in the car, only they are far more elaborate and advanced.

 

They sit down on a couch that squeaks dangerously under their weight and Bobby scratches his beard.

“Tell me what happened, boy.” He prompts Eduardo. He looks concerned and for the first time Dustin pays attention to how worn Eduardo looks. His hair and clothes are disheveled and there are dark rings under his eyes. He is pale and there are scratches all over his body. He sighs.

“Well Bobby, how well are you versed in Christian mythology?”

“Christian mythology?”


End file.
